01 February 2018 – Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for the UN and International Organizations (UNIO) Bayani S. Mercado joined Senior Officials from eighteen (18) other nations in discussing counter-proliferation measures and challenges at the 14th Asia Senior-Level Talks on Non-Proliferation (ASTOP XIV) last January 31 at the Mita Kaigisho in Tokyo.

Hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the event was attended by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Cambodia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam and the United States. The day-long conference covered the activities of the DPRK and sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, national measures to support non-proliferation and extend capacity-building to partners, and other relevant international frameworks.
Assistant Secretary Mercado, a career diplomat with extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy and security issues, delivered a well-received presentation on the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCOC), a transparency and confidence-building framework subscribed to by 139 States. The Philippines served as back-to-back Chair of the framework in 2004-2006. Philippine Embassy-Tokyo Minister for Political Affairs Josel F. Ignacio, who had backstopped the Philippine HCOC Chairmanship in Vienna, Austria, during the said term, joined Assistant Secretary Mercado at ASTOP XIV. END